We are a $3.6 billion private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit.

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Program Overview

The Kresge Foundation’s steadfast commitment to Detroit is embodied in this program. The foundation was established in Detroit in 1924 and has consistently invested in this community for more than 90 years.

Detroit has been one of America’s most iconic cities since the early 20th century, and today it is a place of contrasts. Its many assets and visible signs of renewal are juxtaposed with ongoing challenges that affect the daily lives of many of its people. However, there is an emerging sense that by working together, we can solve some of our most intractable problems. Recent progress is evidenced by growing regional cooperation as well as the unprecedented partnership that led to the speedy resolution of Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy filed in 2013. We are pleased to have played a role in that broad collaborative effort through our $100 million commitment to the Foundation for Detroit’s Future.

Our goal in this program is to advance tangible, sustainable, near- and long-term progress in Detroit. Our investments are fully aligned with the objectives and recommendations of the Detroit Future City (DFC) Strategic Framework. Published in 2013, the DFC framework was created by weaving together the knowledge of thousands of Detroiters with technical expertise in several fields. The framework maps the economic, physical and social transformation of the Detroit to create more consistent opportunities for residents to live in health and prosperity. To accomplish these goals, the Kresge Detroit Program works through six integrated focus areas to advance opportunity and quality of life.

We invest through these focus areas:

We combine citywide investments to foster healthy neighborhoods with focused efforts in areas of the city that are positioned for stability and growth. In this way, we hope to encourage current residents to stay in the city while increasing resources available to strengthen all neighborhoods over time. Priorities within neighborhoods are to: restore safety and vitality; improve housing options for residents; develop the potential of youth; promote neighborhood businesses; productively reuse vacant land; and develop environmentally sound methods to remove blighted structures at the scale required in the city. We believe these neighborhood-based strategies are critical to achieving citywide transformative change.

We pursue strategies to enhance the Woodward Corridor’s iconic identity and unique places while cultivating a fertile environment for job creation and a strong retail and commercial center. In concert with cultural, educational and medical institutions; residents; businesses; civic organizations and the public sector, we work to create a city center that is open and welcoming to all. Investment priorities include preserving housing affordability and diversity – socioeconomic, racial and ethnic – in dense, walkable, mixed-income districts while supporting opportunities for residents and stakeholders to be fully engaged in decision-making about the corridor’s future.

Since 2007, we have worked with many partners to advance the design, funding and construction of the M-1 Rail modern streetcar system on Woodward Avenue from the Detroit River to the North End neighborhood. We hope M-1 Rail will be a catalyst for economic development and jobs in the city’s core as well as for the development of a fully-integrated system of mass transit in the region. In 2014, we expanded our investments in this focus area to include support for public education about the importance of a high-performing, region-wide, multimodal transportation system that connects residents to jobs and opportunity.

We are expanding our focus on early childhood development to respond to the fact that at present less than one quarter of Detroit children are prepared for kindergarten when they start school. We will commit resources over the next several years to help create a high-capacity, well-structured set of early childhood development organizations as an important step toward the goal of fully preparing all students for kindergarten and ensuring their academic success in later grades.

We support a thriving arts and culture community that enriches residents’ quality of life and connections to one another. Arts and creativity enhance Detroit’s identity and its ability to attract visitors and increase economic activity. We work toward this goal through support for the Kresge Arts in Detroit Artist Fellows Program; multi-year unrestricted support of metropolitan Detroit’s arts and cultural organizations; and strategies to foster community development through arts and cultural activities.

We provide resources to create effective and coordinated systems of community support in partnership with government, businesses and other philanthropic and nonprofit organizations.

How We Work

As we evaluate proposals, we look for efforts that:

Align with the objectives and imperatives of the Detroit Future City Strategic Framework, a key reference point for people working toward broad and equitable revitalization in the city.

Connect to networks of collaborators who are focused on solving similar problems.

Complement the range of efforts by other Kresge Detroit Program grantees in specific focus areas.

Engage the community in real and meaningful ways.

Contribute over time toward lasting, sustainable solutions to Detroit’s challenges.

Funding Process

We use a full array of funding and investment tools to foster change, including project grants, planning grants, operating support and program-related investments. Program-related investments may take the form of direct loans, guarantees that provide credit support to borrowers or linked deposits. (Learn more about our social investing.)

Most grants span 1-3 years. We also use resources to convene partners to learn together and lead new initiatives.

Potential applicants should be aware that we offer additional support through our national programs in Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, Health and Human Services. In certain situations, when project proposals offer opportunities to advance the goals of multiple teams, those teams will jointly fund the request for support.

Members of the Detroit Program team are deeply engaged in the community. We make every effort to be aware of emerging and ongoing initiatives that have strong potential to address Detroit’s challenges and advance the objectives of the Detroit Future City Strategic Framework Plan. The team participates in dialogue with other local, regional and national organizations that are committed to Detroit’s revitalization and active in efforts to revitalize urban communities across the nation.

Wayne State is a comprehensive, urban research university and the coordinator of the Woodward Corridor Early Childhood Consortium. A four-year grant strengthens the consortium, a program of the university’s School of Education and Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Child and Family Development, and advances community efforts to promote quality child care in Detroit’s downtown, Midtown and North End neighborhoods.

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An initiative to reimagine the city’s neighborhoods by putting the essential building blocks in place that will support the healthy development of young children and prepare them for educational success Learn more